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Missed LP Water Test Leads To Fine

By Bill Rettew Jr. | Highlands Today

Published: December 13, 2007

LAKE PLACID — All 2,000 customers of the Town of Lake Placid Water System were mailed a "Drinking Water Warning" on Monday, but according to the notice and Gary Freeman, director of utilities, the town's drinking water is safe.

Freeman told the town council at Monday's meeting that he failed to submit lead and copper sample results from June through September 2007, in time to meet an Oct. 10 deadline.

Freeman stressed at the meeting that samples taken during a similar time period in 2004 – the last time when tests were required – indicated the system did not exceed lead and copper action levels. Freeman said the three-year-old results showed less than the maximum containment level.

The director of utilities also said the test is designed to sample water taken directly from the pipes of individual residents living in a majority of homes built prior to 1983, and not the water system as a whole.

The Department of Environmental Protection Agency fined the town $2,000. Testing will start in January and last three months until April.

The warning mailed to residents reads that the testing is part of regular nationally required monitoring, and since the samples were not taken when required, the city "cannot be sure that the action levels were met for the minimum number of required sample locations."

The mailed warning also reads: "Previous samples taken from the June through September 2004 monitoring period indicated that the system did not exceed the lead and copper action levels."

Customers were informed that no action is required.

Freeman said on Tuesday he was charged with ensuring that the tests were performed.

"This particular sample is required every three years and with all the work I do, I was bogged down and missed the test period by a month," said Freeman.

For more information, call Freeman at 699-3747.

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